1970 4-door Charger

[mightywing7]

For those who went to Carlisle this weekend, you may have seen this in the b-body section. I'm not sure if this was discussed before in another thread.  Thought I'd share with all of you......

[mightywing7]

Ok....having problems posting the pics from my phone.  

Will post when I can get to my laptop, or can send from my phone to someone who can post for me.... Anyone available for me to email these pics?

Sorry gang.

[66FBCharger]

I saw this car. I have some pics I'll try to post later.
I was not sure what it was, the VIN was covered and I didn't see any emblems on the car anywhere.

[68RT440]

I saw it too. It was kinda neat...

[RCCDrew]

  I want to see out of morbid curiosity.

[JR]

Well...

[6spd68]

Interesting bit of fab work I'd say

[mightywing7]

That's it...Thanks JR!

Of note, the car had vintage 1970 license plates from Mexico as well as stickers stating Chrysler of Mexico.

[Alaskan_TA]

Very cool car.

[Alaskan_TA]

The only place it had 'Charger' that I could see was in the wheel covers.

[66FBCharger]

I haven't had luck yet finding out if this was a Chrysler Mexico built car and if it is in fact a 1970.

[Lennard]

The rear half looks like a Coronet.

[polywideblock]

looks like a coronet to me

[Homerr]

Best looking Coronet I've ever seen.

[ECS]

I know nothing about this vehicle but Larry Saunders (retired Chrysler Executive) told me that he saw 1970 4 Door (concept) Chargers while working at Chrysler in the late sixties & early seventies.  This picture also illustrates why a 4 Door version of a Sports Model cannot share the same Roof-line or have a fastback appearance in the rear window design.  A person entering the rear seat has to have the proper head room when climbing in.  Notice the difference in roof height of the yellow Charger sitting next to the 4 Door Car.

[BananaDan]

I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night but I'm reasonably good with Google. Here is some research I did into the white 4-door AutoMex "Charger" we saw in Carlisle.

This link explains the partnership Chrysler had with AutoMex to produce cars in Mexico for the Mexican market. Charger wasn't introduced until 1971 according to Allpar.

http://www.allpar.com/world/mexico.html

This link has many pictures of a 1970 AutoMex brochure. 70 Coronet was available in 2d and 4d, but the front clip didn't look like what was on the show field in Carlisle. There are many pictures in this link, click the right arrow to advance through them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27078515@N04/3727988886/

Picture of 1971 Automex Charger (allegedly when they introduced the Charger to the Automex lineup according to Allpar). Looks like a gen 3 US Dodge Charger, not what we saw in Carlisle.

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1971-mexican-chrysler-large-prestige-sales

IMO, what we saw in Carlisle may very well have been an Automex built 1970 4-door Coronet that somebody then grafted 1970 US-built Dodge Charger door skins and front clip to. Welding seams were visible in the wheel well on the fenders and the panel gaps were all over the place. Based on the Googling I did, the 4-door 1970 AutoMex Coronet is the most likely source of the vehicle as there was no Charger in 1970 and in 1971 it was introduced in the style of the Gen 3 Chargers.

If anyone has any information or facts to share about this car, please do so! I am in no way an expert, nor am I pretending to be. I am just as curious as most to understand what we actually saw here.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

ECS in 4, 3, 2.........................

[ECS]

If anyone has any information or facts to share about this car, please do so! I am in no way an expert, nor am I pretending to be. I am just as curious as most to understand what we actually saw here.

I've had 3 separate and independent individuals that worked for Chrysler, in the late sixties/early seventies, say that Chrysler build 4 Door Concepts of everyone of their 2 Door production cars.  I don't know what Chrysler was or wasn't doing back then but I've never understood why some people are so sure about certain occurrences.  Making 4 Door versions of existing vehicles would have been relatively simple in comparison to some of the Concepts that they built. 

Most of the opinions given use the rationale that Chrysler couldn't "afford" to build cars that were never intended to be mass produced or that they wouldn't have "wasted their time" on something so far fetched.   If that is the case, can anyone explain the purpose or reasoning of the Chrysler Concept Cars shown below?  Why did Chrysler build them?  What purpose did they serve and what design characteristics ended up being used on Chrysler production vehicles?

[ECS]

ECS in 4, 3, 2.........................

Sorry but you were already late in your prediction!

[Mytur Binsdirti]

ECS in 4, 3, 2.........................

Sorry but you were already late in your prediction!

Better late than never and someone had to say it.

[ECS]

.......someone had to say it.

Why don't you provide us with the reason that Chrysler made the 2 Concept Cars shown below?  What would have been more difficult..........building those radical designs or adding a couple of doors to an already existing platform?

[BananaDan]

If anyone has any information or facts to share about this car, please do so! I am in no way an expert, nor am I pretending to be. I am just as curious as most to understand what we actually saw here.

I've had 3 separate and independent individuals that worked for Chrysler, in the late sixties/early seventies, say that Chrysler build 4 Door Concepts of everyone of their 2 Door production cars.  I don't know what Chrysler was or wasn't doing back then but I've never understood why some people are so sure about certain occurrences.  Making 4 Door versions of existing vehicles would have been relatively simple in comparison to some of the Concepts that they built.  

Most of the opinions given use the rationale that Chrysler couldn't "afford" to build cars that were never intended to be mass produced or that they wouldn't have "wasted their time" on something so far fetched.   If that is the case, can anyone explain the purpose or reasoning of the Chrysler Concept Cars shown below?  Why did Chrysler build them?  What purpose did they serve and what design characteristics ended up being used on Chrysler production vehicles?

Are you insinuating that this is a 4-door concept Charger that made its way out into the public and into the hands of a private owner who then affixed AutoMex stickers to the windows? I find that far less likely than my theory. Yes, it is a theory, unproven by definition. I'm not sure if you're including me in your "some people" comment but I never made any claims to know, nor did I make any comments or claims about whether or not Chrysler US made 4-door variants of their 2-door cars. I do know that international markets made completely different cars than the US under license by Chrysler for their markets and used model brands on some wacky stuff. Wasn't the Australian Charger based on the Valiant or something like that?

I stated my opinion based on facts that I found with about 15 minutes of research on Google and looking the car over myself with fellow Mopar buddies. As you can imagine, there isn't a ton of information about AutoMex cars built in the 60s and 70s to be found online and as I said I only spent about 15 minutes searching because I didn't have hours to dedicate to this. There may be more facts and evidence out there which I would love to see as I'm just as curious about what we saw as the next guy. I can tell you that I was there, in person. I was parked two cars away from this car and sat next to it for three days. I walked around it, took pictures looked under it and touched it. The paint was very bad, the gaps were all over the place and sheet metal was definitely welded together where the Coronet body lines meet Charger body lines. The AutoMex sticker looked the part and looked like it could easily be 40+ years old. Some of these things were pointed out to me by Mopar friends that have been in this hobby for decades and have restored some amazing cars so I take their opinion very seriously.

Concepts are made by designers and engineers, who are anal perfectionists by trade (I know, I'm an engineer). I find it hard to believe that this car was built by a designer and/or engineer with the way it looked.

As for the concepts you shared, who knows. I'm not sure of the relevance with regards to the OP's topic of this alleged 4-door 70 Charger either. My best guess, the first one was made for a possible live action Jetson's movie and the second one for a Speed Racer movie.  



I'll leave with the sentiment I left my last post on. I would love to hear more information people may have about this white car we saw in Carlisle as it is interesting for sure. But let's keep the topic on track.

[68 BENGAL R/T]

Yikes, this one looks pretty ugly to to me!!!
If Chrysler did build these 4-Door Chargers back then, they should have remembered Chargers look best with 2-Doors.
Although I must say they have improved on the current 4-Door design over the model years. 

[Dino]

That is one seriously ugly car! 

[tcs69rt]

"Coronet" is what they should have called the 4 door sedan they put out 10+ years ago.....instead of calling it "Charger". 

And before anyone gets upset, think about it.....is there a 4 door Camaro or Mustang?